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At all.

He didn’t say anything, though.

We were back in the house’s foyer, in front of the hardwood stairs with the thick bannisters of scratched dark wood.

“Why wouldn’t he just hire Black, if that’s all this was?” Jax asked.

He looked between us when no one answered him, back to gripping Kiko’s tightly in his. He’d also positioned his much taller body directly between the rest of us and Kiko, which I could tell was irritating the shit out of Dex.

I could almost understand why Dex was annoyed.

Jax’s weirdness made it difficult for us to even see Kiko except when she peeked around Jax’s torso… which she usually did when she asked us something, or contributed something to what others were saying. It was a bit like conversing with a prairie dog who popped in and out of their hole after every question or statement.

I likely would have found Jax’s behavior flat-out annoying if I wasn’t still high on space cakes and connected to all of them, including Jax. As it was, I found it endearing and charmingandannoying when Kiko disappeared again behind Jax.

I could feel it wasn’t personal.

Jax wasn’t worriedwemight hurt Kiko.

He wasn’t even worried Nick might hurt Kiko.

Not anymore.

Jax simply didn’t feel safe in here. He didn’t feel Kiko was safe. He didn’t feelanyof us were safe. He also didn’t know what precise danger we might be facing. He didn’t know what dangers might lurk in this house, or in this situation, or from which direction it might come. Jax’s bizarre, purely instinctive and borderline obsessive-compulsive answer to all that was to protect Kiko from absolutely everyone.

Even if we were the only people there.

And yeah, it was annoying.

It was also weirdly cute.

Black nudged me.

Focus, doc. We need your brain. Yes, Jax is cute. I have an overwhelming urge to smack him right now, but they are being cute. I need you to be thinking about the house, doc. I need you to help us get out of here.

When I looked over at him, he scowled a little.

I nudged him back.

Don’t be mean,I sent.

When he scowled harder, I turned around and wrapped my arms around his waist, giving him a tight hug. I let him go only reluctantly, facing the rest of them.

“Okay.” I sighed. Still thinking, I pushed parts of my hair that had fallen out of the elaborate updo they did for my wedding back from my face. I placed my hands on my hips, sighing again as I fought to think.

It crossed my mind I was no longer wearing underwear.

A hard line of pain left Black’s light.

Doc… gaos.

I cleared my throat.

“Okay,” I said. “So what does everyone think? Do the seers need to sit down and do more rooms together? Maybe everyone else could go through the rest of the house, make sure we didn’t miss any recordings?”

Everyone looked around, grumbling, but nodded.

I knew what the grumbling was about.